Le Smart Burger

It seems not a week goes by without someone claiming to have reinvented the hamburger. Everybody wants to dress up the ubiquitous sandwich, turning it into something it’s not, and is usually missing the point.

That’s what sets Le Smart Burger apart from the crowd of pretenders: They didn’t try to class up a hamburger; no, they just made it smarter, says company founder Stelios Lekakis.

Smart Burger uses only Triple-A beef — more specifically, the chuck roll — “the best part of the best part” — to fashion its mouth-watering patties. Never frozen, always fresh is a given, and “it’s about all the ingredients,” Lekakis said. “Our cheeses are real cheeses, not canola oil-based cheese products, and we use real crisp and colourful vegetables.” Even the fresh-baked, whole-grain buns are made without preservatives.

But it is all academic until you sink your teeth into a juicy, perfectly cooked Smart Burger. “If I can give it to my young kids without feeling guilty about fast food,” he said with a laugh, “then I can serve it to you.”

Many fast-food operations simply rip open a vacuum-packed sack of beef and start pressing burgers, adding low-grade fries and suspect cheeses; there’s a sneaking feeling that under all that salt, filler and condiment, well, you’re just not eating a real hamburger.

“I pay top dollar for my ingredients, and not a month goes by that I’m not offered substitutes that promise to cut my costs dramatically,” Lekakis noted. “For what? It won’t be Smart anymore! The best ingredients make the best burger, period.”

Which is basically how it all began when, some five years ago, he and his friend and business partner were lamenting the typical lunch offering. “Thirty minutes is not enough for a sit-down lunch and you are left with a fast-food junk option,” which can include burgers loaded with fat, fillers, preservatives, flavour enhancers, air, water and other un-burger-like ingredients to maximize profit.

“We thought: Wouldn’t it be cool to have a burger place where they grind the meat right in front of you?”

A year later that vision became reality, with the flagship Carrefour Laval location opening in 2009 to immense acclaim, beckoning the local lunch crowd with its award-winning design and delicious, fresh-made recipe for success.

As people line up to order, they watch specially trained employees cutting, spicing and grinding select chuck rolls of beef every few hours in the temperature-controlled, glass-walled butcher room, which is completely disinfected after each batch (typically three to four per day). It is, quite literally, the most transparent food-handling operation around.

“It’s about confidence,” Lekakis said. “About feeling good about what you eat.” What’s more, if you have the appetite you can knock down two beef burgers “and not feel that tired, heavy ‘I want to go to sleep feeling’ because of all the nonsense in other hamburgers.”

There are now three Le Smart Burger locations in Montreal, the latest opening in the newly renovated east-end Galeries d’Anjou and the downtown location now into its second year of serving up the area’s best burgers, across from McGill University on Sherbrooke St. W.

“The downtown location has been incredibly successful. The fast food is fast, the value is incredible and the food is outstanding; what else can you want when working or studying downtown?”

The simple yet inspired menu offers something for everyone from 8- to-80-year-olds. Fresh and delicious salads, chili, and poutine round out the offering of burgers, like the Bourbon Street, Chili Burger, Classic Cheeseburger and much more. See them stack fresh crisp lettuce, slather a pile of tantalizing mushrooms onto your fresh-made bread, and anticipate the first taste of those caramelized onions.

You can also opt for any burger using a marinated, perfectly seasoned grain-fed chicken breast. Yes, you read that right, it’s finally here: a flame-broiled chicken burger done right. Go ahead: try the Parisien with brie, sautéed mushrooms, roasted peppers and mayo. It will make a believer out of you. And did we mention the beer-coated fries that explode in crispy flavour and not grease?

As smart as the quality is the value. A classic trio costs just a few cents more than the generic, fat- and salt-laden jumble of artificial and processed mega-chain fare. Even Le Smart Burger’s fresh-made organic veggie-burger trio is priced to shame the lowliest menu item at a typical fast food joint.